Good news! Food insecurity falls in 2018

posted by Andy Petersen -
Sep 6, 2019

The Department of Agriculture says food insecurity declined in 2019. Data released this week by USDA’s Economic Research Service shows that in 2018, an estimated 88.9 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the entire year, meaning they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.

The remaining households, 11.1 percent, were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 4.3 percent that experienced very low food security. However, the prevalence of food insecurity overall declined from 11.8 percent in 2017. The reported decline was statistically significant, according to USDA, and continued a decline from a high of 14.9 percent in 2011. Very low food security was not significantly different from its 4.5-percent rate in 2017.

USDA says that in very-low-food-secure households, the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times because the household lacked money and other resources for obtaining food.